Book Review: Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell weaves a grisly case around a recently executed murderer whose fingerprints  turn up at a new crime scene.

Genre: Fiction (murder mystery)

Language used: Medical terms used but they are easily comprehensible.

Our say: One-time read

The book begins with with Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Med. Examiner of Virginia, examining the corpse of a gruesome, manic killer, Ronnie Joe Waddell. Things get suspicious when fingerprints found at a crime scene are traced back to the now dead, Ronnie Joe Waddell. This is followed by more mysterious murders, including one of Kay's assistants, all of whom were oddly connected to the dead man.  Knowing a dead man cannot be responsible for this, Kay and her crime fighting team work along a tortuous path to solve these puzzling murders.

The protagonist Kay Scarpetta’s character comes across as very bold, intelligent & well constructed – the veritable heroine of the story. 

Patricia Cornwell

The plot is laid in an interesting set-up but Cornwell has failed to retain that flavour through the book. A higher degree of substantiation (read: more interesting & concrete evidence, hair-pin bends in the story) would have helped the book become more engaging.

Everything that the author has written is convincing, as true as it can happen for real. However, it would have helped had the ending be peppered more.

If you are looking to satiate the thirst for “bloody murder”, then this Cornell book is a bit away from it. But change from reading fiction, it doesn't make that bad a choice!

The Art of Strip-Storytelling...

funny & famous - Archie

Comics!
To begin with, comic-reading takes up quite a chunk of our time spent reading. Be it grandma ushering a child through the picture belts of Amar Chitra Kathas or generations of teenagers who continue to be amused by the funny & famous Archies.

Shikari Shambu 

TinTin from Russia, or Anant Pai's Tinkle from India - we enjoy reading them all with great fervor. Comics  form an essential part of our lives and somewhere even determine the kind of readers we finally become. 

Once we graduate to higher forms of reading, the appetite for the heaps of comic books shrinks, satiable by an occasional glance at the comic strips in the daily newspaper. 


Comics are typically organized collages made of sequences of pictures strung together like a movie reel. Their fundamental aspect is that they tell stories, following the convention of one picture succeeding the other. Each one is a ‘still frame’ out of   a moving sequence.

Suppandi

What amazes me is the ability of a comic to condense time within a single image; and we learn to read so many elements in the sequence, recognizing and being guided by the practice of the comic strip art.

Comic-writing, now, has evolved & accumulated  various methods, making it easier for still frames to represent an enormous range of things. Right from speech, movement, relationships, emotions, to cause and effect, the fictional nature of the comic itself and its characters. 

What I enjoy most is the subtlety, complex construction and delight of the art of strip-storytelling.

Comic books are generally favored by picture peekers because they usually dislike lengthy text. They prefer reading graphic novels as the speech bubbles next to the cartoons make the story easy to follow. 

The balloons play a significant role in helping the reader understand the comics better and also help them ‘hear with their ears’.

Comics have the delightful advantage of being quickly-readable; and they stay still when one looks at them thus helping one analyse the details better and also absorb in a lot more. 

Dennis the Menace

This implies that one can understand  the complexities much quicker without feeling overwhelmed by detail. The pictures, sketched to fit the scene perfectly, also help retain the flavour of the character better.

Comics provide innocuous & attractive material for beginners, an impetus to start reading. Apart from the ‘non-serious’ part, today we have more serious comic strips like the Amar Chitra Katha stories, which are an effort to convey and teach the Indian mythology to the young generation. 

In the course of time, enterprising publishers seized this opportunity and published comic versions of world classics like- Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” and the like.  

                

                         

Albert Einstein had once remarked that good science requires an intellectual love of the object being studied. If something fascinates a researcher he/ she is going to take the pains to unravel its complexities. Sadly for comics, those who criticize them show least interest in understanding them.

A noted thing about comics is that young readers subconsciously  tend to acquire certain linguistic characteristics from their graphic heroes. This is mirrored in the language he/she adapts, how he punctuates, the grammar he uses both while writing and speaking. 

The effect is more conspicuous in the expression, the gestures used & sometimes a slight resemblance to the activities of the comic character.

Although comics aren’t looked up to as serious reading material, what the vast majority tends to overlook is that due to the raw & seminal age in which comics are read, they play a very important part in the formative stages of a reader’s language. 

They heavily influence the reader’s grammar, shaping it well, and help him come to terms with the casual language used. Thus, comic reading forms concrete basis of both formal and informal language.

Garfield

Correspondingly, many schools include comic books in their curriculum simply because they are able to inculcate critical thinking, self expression and writing skills. Also, due to their imaginative benefits, they are employed by therapists in several mental institutions to treat learning challenged, autistic and trauma patients.

All in all, comics are an indispensible part of our lives. They take us to a whole new world of text and image, marrying both fact and fiction in a uniquely visual way that appeals to both the young and old. Well after all.... ‘A picture is worth a thousand words!’

Connecting with more avid readers & bloggers with Blog Adda!

We now join Blog Adda!

Librarywala Blogs has teamed up with BlogAdda to provide readers with the best blog content from across the web! We now offer our content to a wider platform, thus ensuring that there is opportunity for more interaction and discussion!


BlogAdda.com is the largest community of bloggers in India. They provide a platform to showcase Indian bloggers and help them promote to a large audience. BlogAdda has features that helps bloggers connect to other bloggers thereby forming a powerful network. For readers, there is a brilliant variety of content aggregated in a variety of useful forms. 

The editors at BlogAdda choose the best blog posts twice every week in the form of Tangy Tuesday & Spicy Saturday Picks that are extremely popular. Readers get to read some great selected content and the bloggers get a lot of readers on their blog. BlogAdda has access to the finest bloggers in India and elsewhere.  

BlogAdda is among the top 50 brands in India known for the most effective usage of Social Media.


We hope our readers will benefit from this association and enhance their own blogging experience!

Fiction Lover's Must Read: Jeffrey Archer’s - Only Time Will Tell

It’s been some time since JEFFREY ARCHER released his latest book –“Only Time Will Tell”, but its profuse popularity & widespread readership calls for a mention on the blog.

This is first of the five-book series: The Clifton Chronicles which is acclaimed to be Jeffrey Archer’s “most ambitious work in four decades as an international bestselling author”.

“Only time will tell” is set in 1919 in the backstreets of Bristol & revolves around a certain Harry Clifton’s life. The book starts with Maisie’s (Harry’s mother) side of the story of his father’s tragic but noble death as a war hero. Thereon, the book grips the reader in its ingenious plot of deception & enigma that envelopes his father’s death. However, it isn’t before 21 turbulent years that Harry discovers the truth.

                                                          

What gives it multiple facets is that the different characters give a different picture of the same story. As Harry discovers how his father really died, he is lead on to a bigger question? Is he really the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who worked in Bristol docks, if not who is his father?

Around the destruction of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, Harry must decide whether to take his place at Oxford, or join the fight against Hitlers’ Germany.

                                                              

In Jeffrey Archer’s masterful hands, the reader will be taken on a journey that he won’t want to end, even after he has turned the last page of this unforgettable yarn, because then he will be faced with a dilemma that neither him nor Harry Clifton could even have anticipated….

Special mention to the popularity of the book

This one, like most of Archer’s books climbed to the top of the best-seller charts within days of its release.

Plus, Jeffrey Archer visiting India himself simply helped the skyrocketing numbers that the book sales reached.  On his arrival in Chennai, India, he learned about the overwhelming response that Only Time Will Tell had garnered reaching number one on the bestseller list in India after just two days of it’s release.

A number of articles in leading newspapers and sights only go on to prove the intense regard for the author’s work.

DID YOU KNOW :
The readership of his books is much higher in India, even though sales figures are about the same as in major countries. According to a survey, in India approximately 25 people read one copy of a book, whereas in the Unites States and Europe only 2.5 people read a copy – Thanks to the online book rental services which help more people read.


So, fiction lovers & followers, if you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for!
Follow the link & order it now, from librarywala. 

What kind of a reader are you?

Around the planet, there are millions of people who dig into books every time they get a chance to (glad I’m an active part of that creed). Some are held captive by the likes of The Silence of Lambs, whereas some keep themselves amused by taking a fleeting glance at the picture belts in Tinkle & Archie.

A chunk of readers like to say the dialogues out loud to experience what they read whereas some just manage to grasp the essence of the book by flicking through the words.

Even as a common thread runs through the reader community, so do some traits that differentiate each of us from the rest of us. Librarywala fan, Arshia Dar, tells us about the kinds of readers she has come across and what class she identifies with.

“So well! Getting down writing about the various kinds of readers, I need to first understand the kind of reader I am! After having studied the various kinds and categories, I have identified myself as a ‘skimmer’ and the fiction preferring one!

Beginning with the criteria that measures according to the ‘attention and time lending’ yardstick, we have 3 groups:

Sponges, skimmers and the picture peekers!

With the names being highly suggestive, it’s more than easy to place each!

Those who read every single letter and retain decently well are the sponges!

Those who usually just give a glance and manage to get the hang of it become the skimmers!

Picture peekers, very clearly are those who’re hardly interested in the textual portion of what’s actually supposed to be read! They’ll give as much as a look and move on to the images - these are the ones who generally prefer comics.

Then readers may also be segregated on the basis of their respective reading speeds;

Motor, auditory and visual.

Motor readers are characterized by lip movement or vocalization while reading, enabling themselves to grasp better.

Auditory readers just mentally say the words they read; they are known to be more skillful and rapid.

Visual as can be perceived, would just look at the words and move on! The eyes and minds are at a great point of sync in this case!

Then of course we have the better known category-- the genre readers--who likes what! It differs with age, profession even gender. For every different piece of literary work, there is a corresponding different reader who devours that piece like none other.

Even within the genre itself, there is a scope of sub-genring the books. Lets take romance for instance,  a reader may be inclined only to love stories & feels overwhelmed by Love Story invariably every time, whereas a teenager may prefer dark romance like The Twilight Saga. 

When seen with respect to age, Sweet Valley Junior High series are loved by preteens & early teens, they are conveniently replaced by Harry Potter series when they enter their mid-teens.

A boy’s reading journey probably begins with the comedy genre - “The Catcher in the Rye” & Catch -22 & later they go on to read more of adventurous material like The Hardy Boys”

Hmmm...quite an analysis isn't it? What's your thoughts on Arshia's categories? Which one do you fit into?



Happy Mother's Day :D

‎Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn.
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover.
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn.
But only one mother the wide world over.' - George Cooper‎

These lines by George Cooper so succintly convey the unmatched importance of a motherly figure in one's life. A mother willingly and uncomplainingly undergoes the pain of labour to ensure normalcy for her baby. She claims that all of the pain was worth the joy of the first sight of the baby.

Not a day passes when she doesnt feel thankful for the gift of motherhood bequeathed to her.


Throughout the life of her child, she helps her/him chart through - from easing out her 5-year old's first day of kindergarten with sweets and candy to helping her 25 year old cook a wholesome meal.

On this day that celebrates motherhood, Librarywala takes the oppotunity to wish all the mothers across the planet,
 

An Enchantedly Happy Mother's Day!!

Librarywala recommends "must read on Mother's Day" -

Janani: a fantastic compilation worked on by Rinki Bhattacharya. Janani, as the creator of life, defines this narrative collection. It combines writings of  mothers from many walks of life - stepmothers, single mothers adoptive motherhood. The accounts combine memory and nostalgia in nuanced detail, making each narrative heart-warming and, at times, profoundly challenging.

 

BOOK REVIEW : The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

‘Death Instinct’ uses a real unsolved mystery as its premise and the author manages to convey a plausible solution to a crime taken place almost a century ago.  In doing this, he also takes us through post World War I Europe – a World where people travelled in horse drawn carriages, lived hand to mouth existences, travelled in planes when the trains were unavailable – A world on the cusp of a huge shift to modernity.

On September 16, 1920, a bomb ripped through New York’s Wall Street killing and injuring many, and also shattering the fragile peace of the World just out of a major war.

The story of ‘Death Instinct’ revolves around this bombing and three main characters - War veteran Stratham Younger, James Littlemore of the NYPD and a French radiochemist Collette Rousseau. If Younger has his sights set on gaining Collette’s affection, Collette herself is striving to solve the mystery of her kid brother Luc’s silence and also the whereabouts of her fiancé Hans Greuber. On the other hand, Littlemore has his energies towards solving the mystery of the bombing. The three stories come together in a climax which reveals the truth about many respected and highly placed individuals of the time.

The premise of the story is fascinating as it has a blend of fact and fiction. As the author’s note in the end says, a lot of the characters in the story, names and all, are real. The situations are also real and in that way, the book is a slice of history. The usage of radioactivity in medicine, the advent of air travel, funnily shaped motor vehicle- all form a part of the tale.

For me, the biggest plus about the book was its being set during the times of World War I. Having read a lot of literature featuring the world around and after the Second World War, this different scenario was refreshing. The glimpses into Madame Curie’s life and her struggle to procure radium for curing people of their diseases is aptly documented as one of the defining events of that era. Also interesting was Sigmund Freud’s analysis of human mind which was gaining prominence during that time. It was he who suggested that humans have two instincts, an instinct to survive as well as a Death Instinct.

JED RUBENFELD

But on the flip side, the book feels inordinately long. Divided into four parts, once can’t help but wish that there were lesser pages to read. The writing is slow at times, thereby testing the reader’s patience. The portions involving Younger and Rousseau are pleasing to read but the parts with Littlemore at centre stage are a little dull. Also, I personally got a little confused at a number of points in the story because there are too many characters to follow.

To sum up, ‘Death Instinct’ is a book which will be liked by readers who enjoy taking a peek into eras gone by. For the more practical readers, it might appear to be long and laborious journey. For me, it is a 3 out of 5 stars book, an average read!

Book reviewed by Srilaxmi Pai

- a Librarywala.com member